This is the story of a World War II hero, two Winchester Cathedral guides and a statue of France's great saint, Joan of Arc.

Thomas Harvell, the hero, discovered the statue, replica of the one of Joan in Winchester Cathedral, in a church in France in 1997.

Then, in 2000, he read a newspaper account of how two cathedral guides, Diana Kirkby, and her husband, David Fox, claimed they had discovered it.

They, he said, were taking the credit for what he had already done. But the cathedral guides say they beat him to the statue, in a church in Domrmy - Joan's home village - by a year.

So who's right?

In a way, it doesn't matter, because the three people are united in their devotion to France and to the saint who lifted the siege of Orleans by the English and paved the way for the return of France to the French people.

There's no doubt, though, that it makes an intriguing yarn.

It starts one clear moonlit night in late July, 1944, when a Lancaster bomber was heading to Stuttgart and ran into heavy enemy bombardment over Lorraine.

One of Germany's ace pilots, Heinz Rokker, flying beneath the Lancaster in a Junkers 88, found his target. Inside the British plane, the flight engineer, Thomas Harvell (19), had just put on his parachute and was blasted out of the window.

"I found myself in clear air, falling," he said at his home in Thornhill Park, Southampton.

"I managed to drift sideways - it was a dangerous manoeuvre. I finally landed and hid in a wood for an hour, came out - my knee was twisted and I was bleeding from the head - and found a road with a sign for Nancy, 60 kilometres away, so I had my bearings.

"Then I saw in a man in a Basque beret, pushing a bike. I startled him when I spoke. 'RAF!' I said. He didn't seem to understand.

"Then I said: 'Royal Air Force!' Now he understood what had happened and he threw his arms round me. He was a nurse coming off duty in the town of Neufchateau and had been to the scene of the plane crash.

"He hid me in the attic of his house for five days and treated my wounds."

Thomas was then passed to various Resistance groups so that he could go safely to Switzerland and repatriation. But he made the unusual decision to stay and fight with the Maquis.

After the war, he returned to the area, renewing friendships and helping to form a club of people who had fought to defend France. He became interested in the fascinating story of the "Maid of Orleans" and read books about her.

Eventually, in 1997, Thomas found the statue of St Joan in a storeroom of the church at Domremy. It was a copy of the one erected at Winchester Cathedral in the 1920s - when Joan was canonised. The statue was in a tatty condition, Thomas said, and he, it was, who made the first steps towards raising cash for its restoration.

Diana and David, from Kings Worthy, first visited Domremy in mid-October, 1996, on their way to Alsace for a short break. Knowing of the reference to the statue in Canon Fred Bussby's definitive history of Winchester Cathedral, they were keen to see it.

"We were unable to find any sign of the statue in the church at Domremy, but we heard someone in the sacristy and knocked the door," David said.

"It was opened by an elderly lady in black clothing, who we assumed was a nun. In answer to our question about the statue from Winchester Cathedral she led us up the stairs to the storeroom and there was the missing statue."

The couple discovered why the statue had been put out of sight and did not have pride of place in the church.

"In about 1955, it had been decided that the only depiction of the saint in her village should be of her as a shepherdess and not bearing arms. So the statue had been put away in the attic and forgotten," said David.

The £1,700 it took to restore the statue was raised in the Domremy area and the statue is now in the Basilica of St Joan, near the village.

The Kings Worthy couple have written an exhaustive account of their researches in the 2001 issue of the Winchester Cathedral Record.